Environmental Studies is an interdisciplinary inquiry into the relationship between humans and the environment. It draws on work in natural science, life science, social science, humanities and the arts, to help students gain a deeper understanding, both of the environmental problems facing the world and of proactive opportunities for change.

Environmental Studies students have many opportunities to gain valuable experience as volunteers for conservation projects on campus and in the surrounding community. In past years, Environmental Studies students have volunteered on organic garden projects, helped to build trails, and removed invasive species among many other interesting projects.

Dr. Kaplan started his environmental career at Oberlin College, where he was one of the very first ES majors, and he also majored in Poli Sci. After college, he went off to Northern Virginia to work for a quirky company as a computer systems analyst. After two years there, he moved on to the Institute for Environmental Studies at UW-Madison, where he earned his M.S. in Land Resources and a certificate in Energy Analysis and Planning. He was the computer techie guy for IES during that time as well. Then he was off to Chapel Hill for his Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from UNC. His dissertation was about how to get electric utilities interested in solar (photovoltaic) technologies, relying on a national survey of managers. Dr. Kaplan was hired as the founding director of Denison's ENVS program in 1993, and finished his Ph.D. requirements just weeks before moving to Granville on New Year's Eve that year.

Kaplan's courses include Environmental Politics & Decision Making, Environmental Planning and Design, Environmental Dispute Resolution, the Practicum and Senior Project classes, and his new love, Farmscape: Artistic Perspectives on Farmland Preservation. His research spans a variety of areas that are all connected by the question, "How can we best relate to our environment?" In working with the U.S. Geological Survey, his efforts focus on creating an organizational culture that places this agency at the forefront of environmental science. In working with photography, his work deals with views of the environment that might make us think differently about who we are and where we fit in. In working with the spatial patterns of homeless people in Newark, Ohio, his interests are about designing urban communities to tolerate and encourage different peoples who perceive the environment differently.

Dr. Kaplan has two boys who love to explore and who care a great deal about the planet they're inheriting as they grow up. What can be more inspiring than that?